{"id":1299,"date":"2006-01-06T00:08:18","date_gmt":"2006-01-06T06:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=1299"},"modified":"2006-01-06T00:09:43","modified_gmt":"2006-01-06T06:09:43","slug":"homeland-security-tweaks-local-grants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=1299","title":{"rendered":"Homeland Security Tweaks Local Grants"},"content":{"rendered":"

It seems that Department of Homeland Security has finally decided to narrow the field in its financial gifts to local governments, cutting down the list of recipients<\/a> to larger urban areas and key targets vital to actual security.<\/p>\n

In Washington, D.C., Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff outlined revisions to distributing $765 million this year under the Urban Area Security initiative, which funneled $855 million to 50 communities nationwide in 2005.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Some congressional critics have complained that in the past, the program has given too much money to communities that seem to face smaller risks of attacks. Chertoff acknowledged that history.<\/p>\n

“The fact of the matter is, our security is much too important to be determined with funding decisions that are driven by arbitrary formulas or political formulas or a desire to give everybody a little bit of something,” he said.<\/p>\n

The program, he said, is “not a popularity contest, not party favors to be distributed as widely as possible, but a funding program that is dedicated to a risk-based set of priorities, where we’re going to focus on your ability to show highest risk and your ability to show you can put the money to good use.”<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Chertoff’s announcement reflected his efforts to give his department an all-hazards mission, even though it was created as a direct result of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The revisions, outlined in documents sent to state and local officials, would address the kind of destruction and lack of preparedness seen with Hurricane Katrina.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I expect a degree of localized hey-what-about-us opposition to this long-overdue narrowing of focus, but a single paragraph in the pending State of the Union address by President Bush could effectively nullify opposition to the policy change — not that I expect such a maneuver to occur. I’m just saying that it should, as the federal homeland security payouts to date have been awash with tales of silliness.<\/p>\n

While I honestly feel that the Islamist bastards will someday bring the war to our suburban malls (and I’ve repeatedly stated that I’m surprised they haven’t already), we must sincerely look at the fact that they still seem to still be focused on making the Big Headlines and prepare accordingly … though not exclusively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It seems that Department of Homeland Security has finally decided to narrow the field in its financial gifts to local governments, cutting down the list of recipients to larger urban areas and key targets vital to actual security. In Washington, D.C., Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff outlined revisions to distributing $765 million this year under […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1299\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}